I Didn't Say It

Chris Hayes, MSNBC, dragging Florida Governor Ron DeSantis, and the GOP, for their overall hypocrisy:

“In Ron DeSantis’ Florida, the state will decide what books your child can or cannot leave their school library [with] by threatening teachers and librarians with time in prison if they do not comply with vague laws about instruction on race, gender and sexuality. The state will decide what women can do with their own bodies by banning abortion at six weeks. Of course, that is for all intents and purposes a complete abortion ban, which means that Ron DeSantis and the Republican Party of Florida control the bodies of every Floridian who can get pregnant. It’s their body not yours. The state will also decide how you can dress in public, which costumes you can wear. By enacting what is essentially a full ban on drag performances that will also likely restrict Pride events. The state will decide what kind of speech corporations can engage in … but Ron DeSantis’ dystopian authoritarian vision is most apparent in the legislation he just signed yesterday. It bans all gender-affirming care for all minors in Florida, everyone 18 and younger, that law also empowers state courts to change custody agreements if a child is receiving or is at risk of receiving gender-affirming care. Meaning taking a kid away from a parent. Telling parents how they can or cannot raise their own children is among the most authoritarian things a government can do … While Ron DeSantis tours around the country promoting himself and his new memoir titled, ‘The Courage to Be Free,’ at home he runs a government based on the opposite of freedom. His agenda is about state authority and its punitive views and decrees from on high. In Florida, [he] is running a kind of little MAGA kingdom, in which Ron DeSantis and the Republican Party in the state legislature, with their big majorities, tell you how to live your life and you don’t get to choose … Now  the sick irony here the one that I just can’t get over and really kind of sticks with me is that the right-wing movement that gave us this new law signed yesterday, is the very same group of people that screamed about parental rights for years, amidst the pandemic. ‘I get to say whether my kid wears a mask, I get to say whether my kid gets vaccinated. I get to say whether my kid goes to school.’ And Ron DeSantis was the public face of that movement. What a tough guy … you see all that swagger? He’s gonna stand in your way. If you’re coming after parental rights, if you try to tell a parent what they can do with their kids. That very same wing of the Republican Party embodied by Ron DeSantis and the government of the state of Florida, has now demanded and produced a situation in which the government, that guy you saw there with a tough guy swagger about freedom, is going to decide if your child who lives in your home, that you gave birth to or raised, that you love, your kid, what kind of care they can get. He decides … You may not like it, but you know what? It’s none of your, excuse me, goddamn business. To me, that is what the courage to be free means. Freedom means that in my household, our family decides what kind of health care our child does or does not get. Not Ron DeSantis. Not the Republican Party. That is no longer the case in Florida.”

Truth; and if it doesn’t scare the crap out of you that Ron DeSantis wants to tell everyone how they have to live their lives then you deserve what you get, because once he’s done coming for drag queens and trans kids and people of color, he’ll come for the rest of you.

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Lauren Boebert, dingbat, during a House hearing on lowering prescription drug prices—which she opposes—showed the kind of mother she is:

“I left a prescription at a pharmacy once. I went to get birth control. I was there at the counter, went to pay for it, and the price was very, very high. I said wow, is this a three-, six-month prescription? They said, no ma’am, this is one month. I said it’s cheaper to have a kid. And I left it there, and now I have my third son, Kaydon Boebert, and so it actually turned out to be a really great thing.”

Must be nice being Bobo’s third child and knowing that the only reason he’s here is because his mother’s checking account was overdrawn and she couldn’t get the pill.

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Katrina Shealy, South Carolina Republican state Senator, before she voted no on the state's new 6 week abortion ban, offering a suggestion for the men in America:

“Men are 100% responsible for pregnancies. Men are fertile 100% of the time. So, it is time for men in this chamber and the ones across that hall and all across the state of South Carolina to take some ejaculation responsibility.”

I think child support, monetary child support should also start at six weeks and continue on for the next eighteen years and when men see the high cost of sticking their dicks wherever they choose maybe they’ll keep their pants zipped.

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Cher, on the passing of her friend Tina Turner:

“When I first knew her, she was still with Ike. It was very strange to see her with Ike and afterward. I was so thrilled, because afterward, she was so free. You could just see her being able to take a big breath. Her new life was like a big, fresh breath. She was such a force. Honestly, I think she just hit everything head-on... She wasn't about to stop. She might not have won every battle, but she fought every war. She was there fighting for all the things she believed in … She's one of the great artists of our generation, in rock and roll. There was no other person like her. There's no other person who could come close to who she was. I started going to visit her because I thought, ‘I need to put this time into our friendship, so she knows we haven’t forgotten her.’ So we kind of all took turns going and spending time with her. It made her happy and someone said, ‘When you two laugh together, it is the funniest thing that you could ever possibly want to hear’ because we both have distinct laughs. [She] said, 'I can't spend too much time,' [but] then five hours later we were laughing like crazy…She was having a good time in spite of the fact that she was really sick and not wanting people to know about it. There was no other person like her.”

Diva to diva.

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Bobservations

While doing our groceries over the weekend, Carlos stopped me, and whispered:

“Can you get me something?”

“What is it?”

He looks around.

“Preparation H.”

“You got a fire in the hole?”

“Stop that!”

But I can’t, so I jokingly tell him I don’t know where it is in the store so I’ll ask a cashier; then I mimic her on the loudspeaker:

“We have a gentleman in need of Preparation H! What aisle is the Preparation H?”

And then I say once we find it and head the checkout:

“I need a price check on Preparation H? Price check. Preparation H.”

Carlos mutters:

“I hate you.”

But he doesn’t because had the situation been reversed … uh huh.

We have had many, many cats over the years and almost all were good at following the rules; staying off counters and tables; not sitting on certain pieces of furniture. But this one time:

“Rule Breakers

We have rules at Chez Smallville. Cats can get on the beds, on the desk, on the sunroom furniture and on the living room couch. They cannot get on the counters, the tables, the dining room chairs or any of the four new chairs in the living room. And they listen. They know where they can go, and where they cannot.

So, imagine my surprise to walk into the living room and find Tuxedo and MaxGoldberg nesting in a No-No Chair! And look at Max; he's got that Uh-oh face. Tuxedo, on the other hand, couldn't even be bothered to wake up.

At least not until I yelled Geddownfromthere!

Cat scatter.”

And they never got on those chairs again … at least not while we were home.

The National Association for the Advancement of Colored People [NAACP] has issued a travel advisory for … no, not Ukraine, or Russia, Syria or Iran, China or North Korea … but for the state of Florida. The advisory is a response to Governor DeFacist’s attempts to erase Black history and restrict diversity, equity, and inclusion programs in Florida schools, and read, in part:

“Florida is openly hostile toward African Americans, people of color and LGBTQ+ individuals. Before traveling to Florida, please understand that the state of Florida devalues and marginalizes the contributions of, and the challenges faced by African Americans and other communities of color.”

And now the Human Rights Campaign, the League of United Latin American Citizens, the Florida Immigrant Coalition and Equality Florida have joined the NAACP in advising people to avoid visiting or relocating to the State of Hate.

In America.

Tina Turner. Icon. Diva. Singer. Sex Symbol. Goddess. Survivor. She started out a little rough, and then it got rougher for her, but she came through and persevered and taught us all what it looks like to come out of the darkness and into the light.

RIP ... and thank you for the music and the strength.

A guy goes into a bar where there’s a robot bartender who says:

"What will you have?"

“A martini.”

The robot brings back the best martini ever and asks the man:

"What’s your IQ?"

"148."

The robot then proceeds to talk about physics, space exploration, and medical technology. The guy leaves, but he is curious, so the next night he goes back to the bar and the robot asks:

"What will you have?"

“Whiskey."

"What's your IQ?"

"100."

The robot then starts to talk about NASCAR, Budweiser, and John Deere tractors. And then the guy leaves but finds it so interesting that returns next night and the robot asks again:

"What will you have?"

“Beer.”

“What’s your IQ?"

"Uh, about 55, I think."

The robot leans in real close and says:

"Ain’t it awful the way Joe Biden stole the election?”

Could’a happened and could still be happening.

Marjorie Taylor Greene, Republican Traitor and White Supremacist, was the highest bidder among House Republicans for a cherry “chapstick” used by Speaker of the House Kevin McCarthy. Greene made the winning bid for the lip balm after McCarthy sweetened the deal by promising to attend a donor dinner.

And this occurred while McCarthy was ALLEGEDLY negotiating with President Biden over the debt ceiling. If Republicans refuse to raise the debt limit—which they do without a thought under Republican Presidents, but never Democrat Presidents—the US will default on its debt for the first time in history which could drive interest rates sky high, devastate the US and world economies, destroy confidence in the dollar, and permanently increase the interest rate the US spends on its debt.

Yes, while the country appears to be teetering on default, this is what the GOP does. Large Marge and her ilk ick battle over the lip balm KKKevin McCarthy slathers on his mouth before he places it directly on Thing 45's sphincter.

Democrat Representative Sean Casten put it the best:

“In today’s Democratic caucus meeting, we discussed how devastating a default would be for American families and what we can do to get the GOP to take this seriously. In the House GOP meeting, they auctioned off Kevin McCarthy’s used chapstick.”

That’s the GOP; they don’t give a flying fuck if the country is destroyed.

A nice slab of beefcake is Alvise Rigo, an actor, a model,  and an athlete. But all that matters not because all we need to know is: Would You Hit It?

Architecture Wednesday: The Palms Retreat

The Palms Retreat, a custom-built property in Venice, California is a 3100 square-foot, three bedroom, two and a half bath stunner built in 2010. Originally it was what might call a white box, with blond wood floors and stark white walls but it was thoughtfully redesigned by the current owner—and seller, it can be yours for a shade under $6M—to maximize warm, inviting indoor/outdoor living.

The newly refinished interior showcases an array of glass, wood, and steel across an open, sunlit floor plan. The expansive, floor-to-ceiling windows will leave you in awe as you gaze out at the private botanical gardens along both sides of the home. The solar/radiant-heated floors lead to a dining area where you can host groups big and small, with views on one side to the pool, and on the other to the outdoor kitchen, firepit sitting area and private hot tub. Also on the first floor are a sleek wood-clad gourmet chef's kitchen with eat-in nook overlooking the pool, pantry, powder room, and laundry room.  Upstairs are the 3 bedrooms, including the Zen-like primary retreat which features a private balcony and a wood-paneled bathroom with a sunken tub and rainfall shower.

Located in a prime Venice neighborhood it’s just a couple blocks from the shops, galleries, and restaurants on Abbot Kinney Blvd, and just a few minutes from the beach.

It’s like a resort for just you … if you have $6,000,000.

Dwell

Meme Dump